Derek & Casey
by saicho-18
Summary: Then there was Casey. Derek just had to smile at the thought. Casey was like this huge experiment that he just had to try out. Although he did have a sister in Marti's form, he never had a sister of his own age. At first his mind couldn't wrap around the concept of living with a girl that was his own age. Wasn't that like instantly having a twin sister? (working title) DASEY.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** I was cleaning out my files when I chanced upon this little fic. I wrote this years ago before I graduated college and I think I had big plans for it at the time, but when I re-read it a few nights ago I figured that it could stand up on its own.

Updates will be done weekly, reviews are definitely welcome and of course, Life With Derek's not mine.

Enjoy.

Derek and Casey: **1/3**

Derek Venturi was a person easily amused by the silliest things. He could be stuck alone at the mall and be there for hours, just watching people – how they moved, how they walked, how they talked – and he'd be content.

A couple of years back he had been particularly amused by his father when he had first gotten around to dating Nora. To say that his father acted goofily was an understatement; his father had been flat out ridiculous, and he didn't even care. He had been _that _much in love. It had been refreshing to see him break out into dance moves while doing house chores and breaking into random songs while he cooked that Derek and his siblings didn't have the heart to mock him for it.

And his father had acted especially silly right around the time before the wedding. He had suffered through some pretty weird mood swings right after he proposed – extremely giddy one night and highly agitated the next. But, once again, the Venturi kids took no offense to whatever things their father had said to them, chalking up his weird behavior to frazzled nerves.

When the McDonalds moved in, the amusement level in Derek's life rose exponentially. Except for the cramped space in his home, Derek really didn't mind them moving in. All in all they had brought more life into their house than anyone could actually say. He had always wanted a younger sibling to play sports with (no offense to Ed, but he just didn't cut it when it comes to hockey), which he found in the form of Lizzie. Nora did a very good job of playing mom to all of them. And even if she didn't, he probably still wouldn't complain, considering how happy she's made his dad.

Then there was Casey. Derek just had to smile at the thought. Casey was like this huge experiment that he _just_ had to try out. Although he did have a sister in Marti's form, he never had a sister of his own age. At first his mind couldn't wrap around the concept of living with a girl that was his own age. Wasn't that like instantly having a twin sister?

Very quickly he realized that he and Casey were nothing alike, and there would be no chance in hell that anyone could ever mistake them for siblings, much less twins. She had been weird and he just couldn't resist prodding her. Yes, Derek Venturi was now mature enough to admit that he had thoroughly enjoyed annoying the hell out of Casey McDonalds. Just as long as she didn't have to hear it of course, else he'd probably get a mouthful.

What was great about Casey was that whenever Derek pushed her buttons, she would push right back. She didn't always know _how_ to push back, but at least now she knows how to retaliate instead of letting everyone walk all over her. He would like to think that he had something to do with the growth of that backbone of hers. She certainly didn't have one before they moved in.

But over the course of the years, their outright banter battles had died down to a simmer, practically civil conversations as compared to what Edwin and Lizzie were going through. He still couldn't believe it when his father had called their younger siblings almost as bad as he and Casey has been a couple of years ago. Surely, they weren't _this _noisy or _this_ annoying back then. But then again maybe it's just the way it was. Maybe puberty shouldn't happen in such cramped spaces.

And really, he was one to talk, being in his particular state and all.

After almost three years of living together, he and Casey had settled into a somewhat peaceful existence. Sure, they still bantered and sparred verbally, but he thought that it was only for formality's sake. The bantering was a comfortable, familiar place and both parties knew the terrain. People expected them to banter, so they did.

What people probably _didn't _expect was him watching her at the dinner table or while they were all watching television in their living room more often than he would like to care to admit. He had also grown a certain fondness of making her smile, which, from whatever angle he looked at it, was a bad thing.

He didn't want to be all Flowers in the Attic with Casey; it's just wrong. Then again, he figured, if a whole series of books had been written about the repercussions of having children grow up in limited spaces, and then maybe there is something behind his situation. After all, he and Casey didn't exactly grow up together and they weren't really related. She was a great girl, he was a great guy. They were just two great people thrown into this mix and how the hell could their parents _not_ have seen this coming?

Still, he had decided that it was indeed wrong and extremely selfish of him to go after Casey. Besides, it would've probably only freak her out, not to mention possibly ruin their family. So, he resolved to keep it in his pants and go on with his life.

The plan was going great, extremely great. Up until a month ago, that is.

A month ago their Christmas break officially started and school was out. As with all mini-vacations, the first few days of those were spent with the kids sleeping. But that particular Thursday morning, for some unknown reason, he woke up extremely early. He groggily went down the stairs, taking in the lack of light in his vicinity. God, how long ago was it since he last woke up before the sun was up? He padded his way to the kitchen, totally not surprised at the fact that nobody was up yet.

"Derek, you're up early," somebody greeted, making him jump. Bleary eyed, he realized that it was indeed his stepsister who greeted him, and, unlike him, she was already physically composed even though she was still in her pajamas.

"Yeah, well," he said, stifling a yawn and opening up the fridge to get a glass of milk.

He didn't finish that sentence but he did sit down opposite her on the dining table. He couldn't really call the silence as awkward, but since it just hung in the air like that, it wasn't totally comfortable either.

He wanted to open his mouth to start up a conversation but since that funny feeling that he gets whenever she's around is already fluttering around his stomach, he decided to forgo it. That pesk of a feeling had been known to go into overdrive whenever they were alone in a room together, so it was probably for the best not to risk it.

So he contented himself at watching her under the guise of playing with his glass of milk. She was staring out the window, where the sky was still a dusky purple-tinged color. It was a good deal lighter than it had been a few minutes ago, but still nowhere the shade he would consider as real daylight.

He had his glass up to his lips when suddenly she turned towards him, a weird look on her face. He almost dropped his glass, his mind going in all directions, thinking that he had been caught, when he realized that she was grinning.

"What?" he asked.

"Snow!" she squeaked. "It's snowing!" And without so much as a warning, she bolted out of her chair and headed for the front door.

Shaking his head, he followed her out of the kitchen and was actually surprised to see that her pink fluffy coat was still on the coat rack. He grabbed his leather jacket along with her pink one and followed her onto their lawn, which now looked as if someone had sprinkled confectioner's sugar over it.

"Hey!" he called, putting on his jacket. She was in the middle of the lawn, looking straight up at the powdered snowflakes that fell. That Casey would still be _this _excited over snow in _Canada_ was beyond him. "You're going to catch a cold with what you're doing!" As he didn't really have the chance to put on decent shoes, he crossed their lawn in his thong slippers, scanning their surroundings. It was of no surprise that nobody in their street was up. Porch lights were still on, bedroom lights were still off, which clearly meant that the whole of his street was still fast asleep.

So why was he out here freezing his toes off again?

A soft laugh emitted from Casey's lips, drawing his attention towards her once more. He saw her wipe at something on her face, probably a snowflake that landed on her nose or something. It had been a long time since he had seen her this _free_; then and there she looked very much like Marti when she gets a present of some sort.

She was a few feet away from him, mid-laugh when she turned around to his face him. There was such mirth in those eyes that he couldn't believe that it, all of it, came from something as mundane as snow.

And that's the moment he caved. He had never been one for reining in one's emotions, for controlling impulses; it was a wonder he held out for as long as he did. (After all, what Derek wanted, Derek got.)

He crossed the distance between in them in five freezing strides, his eyes trained on her form all the way. She was still smiling up at him, that giddy, childlike goofy smile even though they were only a couple of inches apart – closer than they've ever been without fighting or wrestling over something.

He gave in to the temptation and let his lips form a soft smile. Still, he looked directly into her eyes, not shying away as he had done for the past few weeks, and willing her to see. Gently, he straightened out her fluffy mass of a jacket and settled it over her shoulders, his hand not leaving their spots as they clutched at the white fur lining on her chest. Her smile wavered then, as if she realized just how close they really were standing to each other. Her brows furrowed at him but still she didn't do or say anything.

"Casey," he started, his breath misting over the space between them. "I want you." Okay, there. He blurted it out. It's not like he had a well-formed speech inside his head anyway so that probably was the best it could've gone.

Her eyes widened at his words, her gaze fleeting at every other direction but his, as if waiting for somebody to jump at them. Still, she didn't take a step back or shrug off his hands though, which Derek took as a good sign.

His eyes flitted over her lips, her very full lips, which he sincerely wanted to feel against his own that particular moment. But then, he thought, knowing Casey, she'd probably slap him for it and run back inside the house screaming her head off. Finally she noticed where his gaze rested and, consciously or otherwise, ran that pink tongue of hers over those luscious lips, grazing ever so gently that he wanted to groan.

He leaned in and was pleasantly startled at the fact that she still has yet to move away. With shoes on, they were almost of the same height, but their thong slippers made him a good deal taller than she was, so much so that he was towering over her form. He could feel her tense up underneath that mass of a coat, that unconscious act bringing him back to his senses. Instead of making contact with her lips as he had fully intended, he settled for planting a soft kiss on her temple and moving away.

He stepped back to watch her reaction, which, ironically enough, was just as amusing to him as any other acts of hers. Her face morphed from a look of stunned surprise and when she finally looked at him, she opened her mouth to say something to him, but looked like she thought the better of it. She closed her mouth, stared at him for a few seconds and finally shook her head. And then she went off to do what he had hoped she wouldn't – she bolted back into the house at speeds he didn't particularly know she possessed, leaving him in the middle of their porch with snow dusting his body.

Well, he thought, at least the screaming bit was left out.

After that incident Casey had locked herself inside her room for the whole morning, giving their parents a nice little surprise to see their eldest son as the first one up that specific morning. From then on Derek hadn't gotten her to say anything to him or even look at him for that matter. He baited and baited and baited, but still she wouldn't budge, and just flat out ignored him. The sheer amount of will power she was showing kind of surprised him actually. If she had been this determined to ignore him back then, he probably would've missed half of his life's worth of amusement, since he probably would've backed down after a few weeks of this kind of snubbing.

He had, however, managed to get her to break a couple of glasses, a total number of three porcelain plates, and the hallway vase, which, fortunately for her, was of no particular value to anyone. She was so jumpy around him that every time he entered the same room she was in, she was very likely to break something.

After a few days of this weird situation, their parents had been concerned enough to intervene. His father and Nora had sat him down last week to ask him to apologize to Casey, for whatever it was he did, saying that it didn't matter who had done what first, it was just best to get it over and done with. This cold shoulder he was receiving wasn't worth anything, Nora had said. And they really couldn't afford to lose any more dishes, his father had added conspiratorially before leaving his room.

Now he was seriously considering taking his father's advice and just apologizing for the whole thing, even if he did mean it, all of it. Obviously she didn't believe him anyway and this way he could still get out of the semi-mess he had placed himself in scott-free.

He was just about to talk to her this particular lunch period, actually, and had already started scanning the lunchroom for any signs of her. So determined was she to avoid him that she took all measures to _not _see him anywhere in school ever since it resumed a couple of weeks ago. Obviously she wasn't going to let this go easily, which made it harder for him to make any kind of apology seem sincere.

Just imagine his surprise to see her right there, seated at his table, waiting for him, lunch tray filled with her usual apple and peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Warily, he scanned the chair opposite hers; he wasn't particularly sure if they'd passed the whole booby trap stage just yet. Deeming it safe, he proceeded to sit down in front of her, placing his tray of juice and chili fries on the table.

He stared at her for a few seconds and she stared right back. Okay, maybe this was the perfect time to dish out the apologies. He was just about to open his mouth when she beat him to it.

"Are you messing with me?" she asked, her eyes full of seriousness.

The question caught him off guard and he just sat there, staring at her as if she'd grown a pair of horns on her head. "What?"

"I said," she began, enunciating every word clearly. "Are you messing with me?"

Quickly he scanned his head for anything he could have possibly done that constitutes as 'messing' with her. Snakes, traps, money? No, as far as he knew, he hadn't done anything lately.

"No," he said.

"Then what is your deal telling me," Casey started, but appeared to have had some kind of difficulty finishing her sentence. "_That_?"

He furrowed his eyebrows at his stepsister and discreetly scanned their surroundings. Okay, she wasn't making any sense. Was this some kind of trick? "What are you talking about?"

Her coloring reddened in an instant, as if someone had thrown her into a boiling pot of water. She shifted in her seat, a telltale sign that she was uncomfortable. "Christmas break," she began in a harsh whisper, looking around to check if anybody was listening. "That _thing _that you said to me that morning,"

Derek's eyes widened in understanding. "Oh," he let out. So she thought that he hadn't meant it. She thought that it was just one of his jokes designed to mess with her head. "About that,"

"Did you mean it?" she asked, cutting him off.

His head tilted a bit to his right at her question. Here she was, offering him a perfect escape route. He could just say one simple 'no, I didn't mean it,' and it'd all be over with. Sure, there was the chance of her being significantly furious at him, but that part he could handle. He was well used to dealing with a furious Casey.

He had decided. That was the way to go. Lying had always provided him good lee ways in his life and whoever had coined the expression that honesty was the best policy was nuts.

"Yes," he said, with as much confidence he could muster.

Wait, what?

Her eyes grew wide, obviously not expecting this answer. Well, he knew how she felt; he wasn't expecting this answer either. "What?" she asked, echoing his thoughts.

So there it was, out in the open. He could try lying again, but he figured that for some weird cosmic reason, this was the right path to plough through. "Yes," he repeated.

"Derek," Casey started, edging forward in her seat and bearing her weight on her arms resting on the table. "I'm warning you, if you think that this is a jo—"

"It's not a joke Casey," he said, interrupting her mid-rant. "I totally meant it. I want you, okay?"

If he thought that she had been red before, she was basically carmine right now. Again, she glanced at the people beside them, apparently waiting for them to do something. Derek looked at them too and only found a bunch of senior high school students who were too into their own affairs to care about what was happening at other people's tables.

She did that thing where she opened her mouth and closed it a couple of times and Derek had to fight the urge to let out a chuckle. Yeah, he figured, laughing in her face right now probably wouldn't be the wisest of ideas. He snaked his hand across the table to grasp hers. When she realized what he'd done, she violently pulled back both of her hands off the table and used them to cover her arms. Her eyes were furtively skimming around them, looking for anyone who might be listening as her breathing pattern became erratic. A little bit more of this and she'd probably pass out with hyperventilation.

"Look," he started. Knowing her, she'd probably digest this for the whole of afternoon before she could speak again. He needed to take control of the situation here. "It is what it is, okay? I'm not going to go after you or anything. Even I'm not _that _stupid," here Casey's left eyebrow quirked at him and he had to glare at her in return. "It wasn't something you were supposed to hear but you did anyways. Now I could sit here and lie to your face, but what'd be the point?"

She cast her eyes downwards, processing her words and thankfully her breathing rate had slowed down a little.

"I'm not going to jump you at home, here at school, or anywhere else for that matter, so loosen up a little, okay?" he asked. "Just take it as a guy you don't like liking you,"

After a few minutes of unmoving silence, Casey finally nodded, both her coloring and breathing now back to normal. "But we can't talk about this anymore,"

"Of course not," he agreed. "Oh, and another thing," he added, as an afterthought when she started to stand up to leave. "Could we like go back to that bantering bit?"

She raised her eyebrows at him.

"Yeah," he replied, now more comfortable at their situation for some reason. "Dad talked to me a week ago after he noticed the weirdness and he said that you really should stop breaking the dishes,"

She blushed a bit more at the last part but still nodded anyway. "I guess we go back to normal then,"

He nodded in assent and watched her move to another table. He ate his lunch alone, not minding the fact that he _was_ eating alone. He was just thankful that the Casey situation was now taken care of.

_**-**_**tbc-**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **Many thanks to those who've taken the time to review and/or favorite. This little fanfic's just fluff, I hope you enjoy it.

Again, Life With Derek isn't mine.

Enjoy.

Derek and Casey: **2/3**

It had already been three weeks since he and Casey had that talk at school about his situation. Since then things had been going well, rather well and quite normally too. Normal for him and Casey that was; they had once again settled to that once-in-a-while verbal spars that they usually get into, only because, he thought, that they just couldn't help it. Derek, for his part, had kept on living his life just as he had before the whole Christmas incident; after all, it was just basically the same situation. The only difference this time was the fact that Casey knew.

And even though Casey had yet to stay alone in one room with him or even hold a decent conversation with him while holding eye contact for more than fifteen seconds; she had quite gone on with her daily routines as well. At the very least she had stopped with the breaking of the breakables, effectively getting their parents off his back.

It was currently a bit before eight in the evening and full of purpose and resolve, Derek got out of his room and bounded down the stairs. The house was quiet; because of this particularly tiring week, his parents had decided to sleep in early tonight while the young ones were already upstairs working on their homework.

Derek Venturi was about to go to the mall at this hour. And the best part? Not only was he granted total freedom for tonight, he had also been allowed to _drive _to the mall at this late hour. They had to watch some boring Spanish film for one of their Literature class and it was only scheduled to run in their theatres for only a week. True to the Derek Venturi lifestyle, he had managed to put off watching the film as he had been sufficiently preoccupied by their hockey practice. Today was actually the last day of showing and he fully intended to catch the last full show so that he could write something decent and half-truthful in that paper they were made to do.

He was going solo tonight as most of his friends had already seen it days before. He guessed it would be more enjoyable with some companions, but what could you do, right? He stepped into the receiving hallway to get his coat when he almost bumped into Casey, who was in the middle of putting on her own coat.

"You're going out?" he asked, pulling his leather jacket off the rack.

Casey zipped up and fixed her hair but didn't look at him. "Yeah, I've got to catch that movie for Lit. class,"

He looked at her quizzically, wondering why she was catching the last full show as well. "You haven't seen it either?"

"No," she answered, giving out a loud sigh. "I got so swamped by all other things that I completely forgot to see it. Remind me never to entrust Emily with my homework reminders,"

He opened the front door and the pair of them walked towards their garage.

"Okay," she started. "You have fun on your date, or whatever it is that you're going to be doing tonight and I'll try to stay awake for this movie. Goodnight," she said and proceeded to walk towards Nora's car.

"I was just about to go catch the last showing myself," he stated, heading to his Dad's old Toyota. "If you wanted to catch a ride?" he asked. He knew that she wasn't that good of a driver yet and it was actually a wonder how she got Nora to let her drive at night. He glanced at her and saw that she looked as if she really _was_ thinking about it. He suppressed a snort. Any other girl, any _other_ girl but this one would've jumped at the chance to be alone in a car with him and go catch a late movie. "I'm still not going to jump you, you know,"

She cracked him a nervous smile. "Well if it helps to save gas, why not, right?"

"'Atta girl," he said with a smile as they both got in. He started up the engine and backed out of their driveway very carefully.

Their drive to the mall, although a relatively short one, was filled with silence. So much so that Derek was actually forced to push the play button on his Dad's tape player even though he didn't know which tape was in there. Still she kept silent as Burt Bacharach belted out songs he didn't know the titles of. Truthfully speaking, he was beginning to wonder if asking her to ride with him was a good idea after all.

They pulled into the mall's parking lot, which was only sparsely littered by various cars, as was expected by the late hour. They reached the top floor where the cinemas lay, still in silence. Derek had been almost tempted to start up some form of small talk but thought the better of it.

It had been an especially awkward moment when they were in front of the ticket booth.

"Look," he started. "It would be pointless to sit apart from each other tonight, considering that the cinema's probably almost empty by now," Derek raised his eyebrows up at her, prodding her to decide.

"I guess we could sit together," she said. "But only if you keep very, very quiet, Derek; I need to understand this movie for my paper,"

"Hey, I'm going to need someone to explain it to me anyway," he said, going up to the booth to get their tickets. "I'll probably just sleep through it tonight though,"

With a roll of her eyes, she turned away from him, muttering something that vaguely sounded like 'figures' and said, "I'm going to get some popcorn, want anything?"

He thought for a moment and replied, "Yeah, get me some taffies,"

"Got it," she said and walked towards the food stand.

A couple of minutes later they were both inside the theater, fumbling for seats in the darkness, their arms laden with a couple of tubs of buttered popcorn, a couple of sodas and a handful of knick-knacks. Derek had been right; the cinema _was _practically empty. There probably were only five of them inside at the most.

Teasers and theatrical trailers rolled on the giant screen, providing them some kind of light as they settled down somewhere in the middle aisle. He had been on dates like these before, but unlike those circumstances, he had no intention of doing anything frisky tonight. Sure, he wanted to, but he didn't want to make things anymore awkward than they already were with Casey.

After two teasers of upcoming movies, a Spanish one and another French one, the opening sequence played and El Crimen de Padre Amarro officially began.

A few minutes into the film, Derek could feel his eyes drooping. He should've figured that this whole movie would be in subtitles. After a quick glance in Casey's direction, if only to make sure that she wasn't going to sleep as well, he closed his eyes and dozed.

The incomprehensible noises coming from the actors on screen lulled him into an easy but shallow sleep. He didn't dream of anything, at least he didn't think he dreamed of anything, but he did wake up in what seemed to be evenly spaced intervals all throughout the movie. Okay, new priest in town, living with an older priest, hot girl confessing, hot girl and new priest making out. Basically he got the gist of the movie but he never figured out how it ended as the next time he opened his eyes, he saw Casey's face, leaning in real close.

"Derek, wake up," she called, shaking his shoulder lightly. "The movie's over, let's get out of here,"

"Huh wha-?" he answered, trying to get a hold of where he was. After a few minutes of blinking around, he composed himself enough to stand up. "Yeah, okay, let's go,"

The house lights in the cinema were turned on, making their trip out significantly easier. Once outside the theatres, they stepped onto the one remaining functioning escalator that headed down.

"I can't believe you really slept through it," Casey said, turning to him.

"Subtitles really aren't my thing," he replied, biting onto his uneaten taffy.

"Well you missed a great movie," she said, a lilt in her tone.

"I'll get a better understanding of it if you explain it to me," he hinted, a wide grin pasted on his face.

Again, she rolled her eyes at him and turned away, smiling. "Only if you pay me enough,"

At her words, an idea flashed inside his mind. "I've got the perfect thing to pay you with," he said, excitement coursing through him. He knew, just _knew_, that she would love seeing it.

She looked at him, puzzled at the sudden burst of energy that presented itself in his stepbrother's form. They were still in the second floor of the mall when he hopped off the escalator and, grabbing her hand, ran off somewhere in the middle of the structure and away from the escalator that'll bring them downstairs.

"Derek, where are we going?" she asked, shouting to get him to hear her while they ran.

"You'll see," he said, looking back at her to flash her a smile. He grasped her hand tighter and ran faster to a place that he was pretty much sure she's never seen before. He heard from someone at school that there was a new structure built a few days ago somewhere near the fountains in the middle of the mall. He hadn't seen it himself, but from what he'd heard, it's pretty much artistic – exactly the type of thing that Casey would like.

Abruptly they stopped running in front of the fountains, which, predictably, were turned off at this hour. He glanced at the scene before him and frowned. Okay, so the so-called structure wasn't somewhere _near_ the fountains per se; it _was_ the new backdrop for the whole thing.

"What is it?" she asked, stepping a bit closer to the gigantic wall, at least ten feet tall, that now provided for one whole side of the fountain.

"I don't know exactly," Derek answered truthfully. "I heard from somewhere that they built a modern art piece near the fountain; didn't think it'd be this huge though,"

The wall was made of stone, he presumed, of some mud colored material. In it was a mural of some sort. Derek titled his head to the left, trying to figure out what exactly was painted on there.

"It's a forest," she gasped. He turned to Casey and saw a big smile start to form on her lips.

He glanced back again at the mural. Maybe those crisscrossing lines _were_ the leaves of the trees? He stared harder and finally saw that she was right; the picture was an entrance _to _a forest, not exactly a forest itself. The brown and green lines made up the branches that hung low, meeting somewhere in the middle to form some kind of roofing, providing a shade for the dark brown path that lay below.

"So it is," he said, jumping onto the ledge of the fountain. The floor of which was now so dry that he could actually walk on it.

"Derek," she called. "What are you doing?"

"Taking a closer look," he answered. He knew that she wanted to take a closer inspection as well so he offered her his hand.

She looked at their empty surroundings, looking for anyone who might call them on it. After seeing nobody, Casey finally accepted his offer and stepped onto the ledge as well. They crossed the fountain and in seven steps, they were face to face with the wall's surface.

The design wasn't just painted on as he had first thought, rather it had been sculpted on there first; at least he thought it was, as the painted leaves and branches seemed to be embossed on the surface. Derek turned to see Casey, who, for her part, was inspecting the detailed work on the leaves.

Smiling, he whipped out his phone from his pocket and switched it to camera mode. "Hey Case," he called, focusing her form on the tiny screen. "Smile!"

She had been caught unaware when the flash went off so the picture of her on his phone was that of a surprised Casey.

"Hey, no fair," she said.

He let out a small laugh and switched his phone back to the camera mode. "Okay, okay, pose this time, okay?"

She complied with his instructions easily enough, posing and smiling in front of the mural. Derek took a couple of steps back to accommodate the wall into the picture. After snapping the photo, he stepped closer to her, crouched down to her level and held his phone at arm's length away from their faces. "Say 'cheese'!" he said, adjusting his phone so that they could have at least one picture together in front of the mural.

"Hey!" someone called out to them. "What do you kids think you're doing?"

Derek looked at the direction of the voice and found a rather chubby man donning a security guard's uniform, a frown on his face. Uh-oh.

"The mall's supposed to be closed at this hour, didn't you know that?" the guard called, walking towards the fountain. "Now get off of the damned fountain!"

Very quickly they stepped off of the fountain and apologized vehemently. The guard – Stu, his nameplate read – was not quite convinced that they weren't a couple of law breakers and escorted them out of the mall personally, scolding and preaching as he went. Again in the parking lot Casey apologized profusely for the trouble and bid Stu a hasty and incredibly apologetic goodnight.

Stu, with a somewhat loud 'haroomph', locked the front mall gates slowly, steadily watching them with squinted eyes as they made their way back to their car. Once out of Stu the night guard's earshot, Derek let out a soft laugh at their situation.

"Sorry 'bout that," he said, letting out a soft chuckle. "Probably wasn't the best of ideas, huh?"

"No," she said, a soft smile playing at her lips. "What're you talking about? That was cool. Now we can add to our list of miscreant-ry getting kicked out of the mall at late hours,"

"I'm just glad that you stuck it out with me, you know," he said. "I've got some pretty whacked out friends who probably would've ran away the moment Stu came waddling down towards us,"

"Yeah well you know some pretty weird people," she said, laughing. "And besides, that's what friends do, right?"

He quirked an eyebrow at her. "_Just _friends?"

"Okay, okay," Casey caved, rolling her eyes. "_Good_ friends then,"

He looked at her pointedly, raising his eyebrows. He knew that he was baiting, but she wasn't hitting him yet, so that was a good sign, right? Shameless flirtation every now and then never hurt anybody, and apparently Derek Venturi could _not_ go on a day without doing it.

"_Best _friends?" she asked, her bright smile replaced by a nervous one.

Abruptly he stopped walking and turned his full body so that he was facing her and took a full step towards her form, effectively reducing the space in between. He didn't know what had happened, but everything suddenly turned serious. He hadn't meant for it to happen; at best he was hoping for her to flirt back a little and then they'd be on their way home.

Before he could stop himself, he gently lifted his hand to brush away a stray strand of hair on the side of her face. "Casey," he whispered, knowing full well that his words, and not the cold air around them, were responsible for the coloring on her cheeks.

After a few seconds of extremely uncomfortable silence punctured only by her loud breathing, he stepped back, willing himself not to feel any kind of emotion akin to defeat. He knew that he was pushing it when he made it perfectly clear that he wouldn't. It was perfectly excusable that she wasn't looking at him right now – Casey was a shy girl and what he did probably made it all the more uncomfortable for her.

But even so, he didn't regret doing it. Still hurt as hell though.

He cleared his throat a little too loudly as they approached the car. "I guess we should be heading home right about now, right? Dad and Nora are probably missing our usual ruckus at home,"

They both got into the car in awkward silence that lasted for at least a third of the way home. Again, Burt Bacharach worked his magic in filling up awkward silences as Derek steered the car.

In silence, he contemplated on berating himself for that stunt he pulled at the mall. Great. Now Casey probably thought of him as some weird maniac who just might do something nasty to her when she's taking a bath or something. He really _did_ want to do something nasty to her when she's taking a bath at home, but not without her consent. He liked to think that he wasn't deprived enough to resort to rape.

After parking his Dad's car on its usual spot, Derek killed the engine and unbuckled himself from the driver's seat, fully intent on walking up to the door _without _saying anything. He didn't think he could dish out anymore self-humiliation tonight. As he was about to open his car door open, Casey's hand landed gently on his leg. He stared at it for a few seconds, all thoughts of getting out of the car momentarily forgotten. Okay, her hand was on his leg.

"Derek wait," she called. Not really necessary as the mere fact that she was touching him made him pay attention. "Listen," she started, looking as though she was having some difficulty in continuing with whatever it was that she had to say.

Just spit it out, he wanted to say. It was already embarrassing for him to stay out here in the car alone with her after what he did earlier and he wanted nothing but to just collapse on his bed and sleep what remained of the night away. "Yes?"

She took a deep breath as if bracing herself for something to hit her. "I really had a nice time tonight,"

He smiled at her words, even though he knew they were just said to comfort him, a doggy bone to placate his wounded ego. He wasn't one to receive charity acts from anybody with grace but just this one time, he'd gladly accept her offer to end the night civilly.

"Maybe we could have a repeat?" she asked in a hopeful tone.

Right, he thought. She almost freaked out at the somewhat intimate gesture at the parking lot earlier and she was offering him another try? Personally he knew that he didn't _need_ what she was throwing his way.

"Sure," he said with a smile.

He sure wanted it though.

**-tbc-**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **And here's the last chapter :) Thanks to all the people who've taken the time to read, review and favorite :) I hope you enjoyed it and apologies for uploading this a day late; last night was crazy.

Oh, I don't live in Canada so I'm not really sure if the schools match the courses or not. If I've made a (gross) mistake, please drop me a line so I can correct it.

Enjoy

Derek and Casey: **3/3**

Derek Venturi flipped channel after channel as he was seated on his chair in front of the television. Why was _nothing _good on? Every other channel presented itself as some lame ass talk show that interviewed transvestites or something. Where were the sports? Where were the good cartoons?

It was another Tuesday afternoon at the MacDonald-Venturi household and, as usual, Derek beat everybody onto the television so Edwin and Lizzie retreated back to their rooms to do who knows what while Marti busied herself with another one of her projects in the kitchen.

A couple of weeks had passed since that fateful night in the mall's parking lot and unfortunately, things didn't get particularly better than before. He hadn't seen much of Casey since that night, so much so in fact, that had he not owned quite a well nourished ego, he might have concluded that she was avoiding him. He sincerely wished that she wasn't though, and not only for obvious reasons either; he really didn't want to hear another talk from his Dad about ending fights with girls.

But she's been coming home late and skipping dinner, saying that she was being kept busy by schoolwork. Sure, Derek knew that the life of a senior high school student was a hectic one, but _he _wasn't coming home late or skipping meals. The fact that she hadn't said anything to him apart from the mandatory 'hi's and 'goodbye's didn't help.

Yeah and she talked about going to the mall to see a movie again. Right.

With a sigh he turned the television off and headed into the kitchen for a glass of soda.

"Hey Smarti," he greeted, ruffling his youngest sister's hair from where she sat on the dining table. "What're you up to?"

"Hi Smerek," she replied, making him smile. She'd grown up a lot in the last two years and matured a lot too, but still she kept up the Smerek-Smarti gig up. "I'm making a card for Nora and Daddy's anniversary,"

Derek took a peek at what Marti was working on. She definitely got better at handling scissors and paint. "But Smarti, that's not until the end of the month,"

"I know," she said, not lifting her eyes as she continued to cut out a flower out of blue cardboard. "But it's only part of the gift,"

With an affectionate smile and another bout of ruffling his younger sister's hair, he headed out of the kitchen with his glass of soda on hand. He was about to walk back to his chair and give the television another chance to provide him with some kind entertainment, but something in the table by the stairs caught his eye.

Atop the polished brown surface lay a bunch of envelopes, which, from the looks of it, were mostly bills. What popped out of the bunch and attracted his attention, however, was one yellow manila envelope that had Casey's name on the recipient's label. And it was addressed to have come from Toronto University.

Derek looked at the yellow thing with narrowed eyes. Casey had been waiting for this specific envelope for weeks, her antics providing him the amusement he had grown used to over the past three years. Every single day, without failure, right when she walked in their front door she would make a beeline for the table by the stairs, racking each and every available piece of paper on there.

And even though she hadn't been doing a lot of talking to him the past week, he could easily figure out that the particular mail she had been waiting for hadn't been delivered yet because the past few days, he'd heard nothing but angry footsteps up the stairs followed by a rather harsh closure of her bedroom door. Well, at least her door wouldn't be taking any form of beating today, he thought.

His glass of soda left forgotten atop the table as he picked up the manila envelope and decided to leave it on her room instead. Derek knew that out of all the universities Casey had applied to, Toronto U was the one she actually wanted to get into. Technically she was a legacy there as her Dad went to Toronto University in college, but he didn't know if her getting in will be a sure thing as her Dad had passed away a long time ago. The acceptance and rejection letters had flooded their doorstep a month ago and he knew that just like him, Casey had been accepted to University of British Columbia. Unlike him, however, she had also received acceptance letters to York and McGill.

Derek padded up the stairs, a wistful look on his face. He wondered what this particular letter contained. Based on her grades and on the past acceptance letters she'd received, he's quite sure that she'd get in. But then Casey would go to Toronto to take up journalism and he'd go to British Columbia to study music. Idly he wondered just how life altering that scenario was.

He reached the surface of the door to her room and, purely out of habit, knocked even though he knew perfectly that she wasn't in yet. Knocking before entering had never been a practice in the Venturi household but after the MacDonalds had moved in, all three women had been adamant in making it a permanent addition to their very much lacking Venturi rulebook.

Cautiously he stepped inside her room, closing the door quietly behind him, his eyes unconsciously skimming his surroundings for anybody who might've been watching. It was a new feeling, stepping inside her room with no thought, intent or plan of wreaking havoc of any kind. He's been to her room tons of times before and just like now, most of those trips were purposely planned around her schedule so that the room would be empty.

Pink walls lined with shelves upon shelves of books greeted his eyesight, the sheer neatness of the room making his eyes grow wide. No dust bunny, wrapper of some sort, or a wayward piece of clothing can be found on the floor or on the rug, very much unlike the mini war zone that comprised the walking space inside his own room. The bed, again, unlike his, had been already made, the edges tucked in tightly under the mattress.

He took careful steps further into the middle of the room, with the intention of leaving the yellow manila envelope somewhere that can be easily seen. Derek's attention flew to the bed, but decided against leaving the letter on the covers, as Casey was one person who ignored the bed until bedtime actually comes rolling around. Besides, he didn't think it'd be a wise idea to linger around the piece of furniture where Casey slept every night. He walked further into the room until he reached her study table.

The study table, differing from the rest of the room in the manner of its disarray, was found against the wall across from the door. The contents of which were arranged in no particular order; her personal computer was buried underneath a pile of papers, one of which reminded him that he hasn't submitted _his _yet, and various colors of pens and paperclips and whatnots were scattered across the table's surface. Sure, the level of disarray in this particular table pales in comparison to the mess that Derek called his room, but the contents of the table looked so out of place in Casey's room that he itched to do something.

Against his better instincts, Derek Venturi began to tidy up. He gathered all pens and put them in the tin container that held her other pens and he threw all stray paperclips onto a porcelain dish shaped like a blowfish on one corner of the table. Rearranging her papers, he bundled them all together and set them aside, placing a marble paperweight on them and effectively made some room for her personal computer. The assorted books he found on the edge of the table, about to fall of, he piled up and walked it to the nearest shelf on one side of the room. Placing each book in each slot with utmost care, he lined them up according to their sizes.

After completing his task, he took a step backwards to look at his handiwork. Not bad, if he did say so himself, considering that he's almost had zero training in the cleaning bit.

"What're you doing?" a voice sharply asked from behind him. Derek almost gave himself a broken neck at the speed that his head whipped to the general direction of the door. What met his sight was his stepsister, Casey, one hand on the door knob to her room and another hand on the strap of her messenger bag.

Immediately he felt uncomfortable at being spotted inside her room when he really shouldn't even be anywhere near outside her door. Putting on a brave stance, he faced her completely and tried to sputter out an answer to her question. "I – I was just –"

Casey's eyes narrowed at him as she stepped inside the room. "Were you – were you just straightening up my stuff?"

The question made Derek very much uncomfortable for some reason. Although he knew that what he did was technically _not _wrong, still his stomach twisted at the sound of her closing the door. "I – It was just –" he stuttered. After mentally kicking himself, he took a deep breath and continued on calmly. "You're things looked out of place and I just _had _to do something. Who knew you were such a slob, Casey? And, I know, I know, I'm not even supposed to be here but – "

He never got to finish that badly patched up apology as Casey crossed the room in four whole strides, backing him up against the shelf in the process. Derek's eyes widened not only at the fact that her whole body was pressed up flush against his, but also at the fact that her lips were also against his. She had come up at him with such velocity that his had back had hit the shelf quite roughly, the panels of which were digging on the skin of his back quite unpleasantly.

Not to say that Derek was complaining. For months he had wondered just how exactly Casey's lips would feel, and here he was now, feeling them. A part of him didn't want to believe it; it was just too good to be true. But the different sensations bombarding his brain told him that _it_ was truly happening. The pain on his back clashed deliciously with the softness of her form meshed completely up against his front. He couldn't really help himself when his eyes closed on their own accord and his hands snaked up her back, savoring the smoothness of her shirt and the curvature that molded itself on his hands.

He was a bit surprised, however, at how incredibly forward she was being though. Both of her hands framed his face, her lips taking control of their situation. Not quite believing his luck, but not wanting to ruin anything, Derek intended to get as much out of this kiss as he could possibly get.

Slowly he leaned into it, with the sole purpose of deepening the kiss when suddenly, her lips disappeared. When he had opened his eyes, she was already all the way across the room once more, very much looking out of breath. Her fingers were on her lips and she was pacing in a very small circle.

When he had gathered enough of his faculties and got them working properly again, he took a tentative step to where she was. "Casey," he started.

Her head snapped towards him and her eyes widened, as if she had just remembered that he was still in the room. She eyed him for a second and then quickly stepped towards the door, opening it violently. Without meeting his eyes, she gestured towards the hallway and said, "Get out,"

Okay what? Derek stared at her as if she's asked him to go dance the salsa or something.

"I said _out_!" she repeated, her voice raising a notch louder and her foot stomping on the carpet.

Dazed and confused, Derek slowly made for the door. His mind couldn't quite wrap itself to what had happened, to what was still happening. Casey had been all over him a minute before and now she was kicking him out?

"Fine," he finally snapped and proceeded with angry steps to his room. He passed her with an unreturned glare and stepped outside her room. Her hand was tightly wound on the door knob and her head was still bowed.

He was already in the middle of the hall, basically only a few feet shy of his own room, when anger fell upon him like a cold bucket of water. Sure, he could retreat back to his own room, his haven and sulk for the rest of the day but what would be the point? He could lock himself up inside his room for hours, seething and venting, but he knew that he'd never get anywhere that way.

Not without any answers.

Angrily he stopped walking and turned himself around, his heavy steps echoing in the empty hallway. This time, without knocking, he barged purposely inside her room, banging the door closed behind him.

"Is this a game to you?" he asked, his voice rising in anger.

She had been caught unaware, clearly not expecting him to return so soon, if ever at all. She stood up at once from where she had been seated on the chair in front of the very table that had probably started all of this. Opting for a defensive stance, she crossed her arms across her chest and said nothing. In fact, she didn't do anything _or_ say anything and there was such a haughty look on her face that made Derek want to scream his lungs out at her.

"So that's it then, is it?" he half-shouted, uncaring if anybody other than themselves could hear him. His question was met by a blank stare and silence, infuriating him further. Derek seriously could not remember the last time he had felt this angry at anyone before. "That's your game, isn't it? You take something real and you use it against me? Real mature, Casey, real mature,"

"What are you _talking _about?" she asked, her voice somewhat of a harsh whisper, her face genuinely looking puzzled.

"You know very well that I have feelings for you, Casey," he said, his voice dropping down to a deadly low, the fist of his hand connecting loudly against the surface of the wooden wall that separated their rooms. A sharp pain radiated inside his limb but it was still nowhere painful enough for him to acknowledge. "How could you, Casey? I thought we were passed _this_,"

She opened her mouth but no sound came out and he took her silence as a cue to continue.

"I get it, I get _it_ that you don't have the same feelings for me but," he let out a frustrated sigh, his hand roughly going through his carefully styled hair. "Do you hate me _that _much? Jesus, I would've backed off had I known you were this cru–"

"I don't hate you," she said in a voice so low that he almost didn't hear her. At last, he thought, a response. "I don't hate you," she repeated, much louder and throwing her arms at her side.

She said that she doesn't hate him, her words making a bigger mess of things inside his head. So what did that mean? It totally disrupted the underlying logic of his outburst.

Clearing her throat, she continued in a firmer voice. "I know that it's not supposed to be like this, and then that thing at Christmas break happened…and I know I'd disappoint Mom and George so much,"

He called out her name and took a few steps towards her, stopping a couple of steps short of where she stood, giving her some space. Now she _really_ wasn't making any sense. "What are you saying?"

Taking a deep breath, she finally looked at him and said, "There's this huge chance that I might really like you,"

He stared at her for a few seconds, her words slowly sinking in his anger addled brain. "A _chance _that you _might_ like me?'

She rolled her eyes, an inappropriate gesture at a time like this, thought Derek and looked away again. "Okay, I think I do like you,"

"You _think _you like me?" he asked, incredulous. "That's not good enough, Casey,"

She looked at him, her eyes telling him that she felt particularly helpless at that moment. He was very nearly tempted to give in to those eyes, to take whatever it that came his way, but something in him was telling him to hold fast. He wanted Casey, yes, very much in fact, but he wanted _all _of her. And if she wasn't sure…

"What do you want from me, Derek?" she asked, her eyes pleading him to give her a break.

He took a couple of steps towards her, closing the space in between them for the second time that afternoon. Gently he brushed away the strands of hair that fell in front of her eyes, seeking her gaze out. He knew that she could say it; she was just being Casey again, making things more difficult.

She softly let out a sigh, her eyes showing sings of giving in. "Fine," she said. "I want you, okay?"

A grin slowly formed on his face. He didn't know it would feel _this _fulfilling just to hear those three little words. He's heard them before, surely, but it had never sounded that good before. "I'm sorry, what?"

Rolling her eyes, she continued, her eyes not meeting his. "I said," she started, looking unsure if she wanted to continue. "I want you,"

He stared at her for a few seconds, relishing the feeling of having Casey MacDonalds say that to him. His grin widened further when she finally looked back at him, her eyes speaking volumes of how unsure she was about the whole thing.

But her right hand suddenly flew upwards and her fist connected heavily with his left arm. "Okay, ow," he said, rubbing the spot where she punched him all of a sudden.

"That's what you get for thinking that I'd stoop so low that I'd trick you," she said, crossing her arms once more.

All feelings related to pain dissipated at what she'd said. His smile returned. "Yeah well if I remember correctly, you thought the same of me too,"

Giving a slight nod, Casey silently conceded at his point. "I guess we're more alike than I'd like to admit,"

An easy smile formed on his lips once again. "I guess we are," he whispered as he leaned in and did something he had wanted to do for ages.

Derek Venturi finally kissed Casey MacDonalds.

**-fin-**


End file.
